Monday, January 15, 2007

Quite Frankly, YOU'RE CANCELLED

"Quite Frankly" CANCELLED: You may have missed it (oh, and in fact, I'm sure you did), but ESPN cancelled "Quite Frankly" on Friday night, making my "What's Hot, What's Not" List for 2007 UNCANNILY ACCURATE.

When Mark Shapiro originally signed Stephen A. Smith (FOR FOUR YEARS) to do a nightly talk show, the model Shapiro was looking for was BILL O'REILLY MEETS OPRAH. But Stephen A. was NEVER the right fit for his own show, and CERTAINLY not an hour; he is an NBA analyst.

(And, YIKES: WHAT DOES IT SAY that when ESPN went looking for a non-athlete analyst to sit on their marquee NBA anchor coverage, they chose MICHAEL WILBON over SAS?)

Stephen A. wasn't "love to hate,"like Cosell; he was "LOVE TO CHANGE THE CHANNEL," which -- in a ratings-driven world -- was DEATH. His MOST WIDELY WATCHED moment was a piece of homemade video from the NBA Draft aired on Deadspin where he SHOWED A DISTINCT TASTE FOR CHEESE DOODLES.

You won't have Stephen A. TO KICK AROUND ANYMORE. (But what will happen to my ALL-CAPS typing skills?) The word "Frankly," is now returned to you fans, where it rightfully belongs. But a permanent taint on using it remains. THAT might be SAS' BIGGEST legacy.

16 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Wow, Dan this is your first post after the weekend. Are you kidding me after what might have been one of the best most nailbiting weekends in NFL history you lead with this. This is an item you bury near the bottom of the quickie not give it the first post on Monday Morning.

Can't say that I'm surprised. Steven A. is just a little loud for most of the country I think, which is a bit of a bummer because I really think that sometimes he hit on some really good points. Granted, he was like 1 out of 5 at best, but it's still a bummer.

I'm just curious Dan, it sounds like you were really excited about this... do you have some sort of personal thing going with Steven A?

I live in Philadelphia where Stephan A. writes a column for the Inquirer. Quite Frankly wasn't half as bad as his column is, because he is quite possibly one of the worst writers I have ever read. Nothing he writes ever makes any sense, and the fact that he still has a job writing the column is unbelieveable to me. If he is planning to use this time to write more for the Inquirer as he says he is going to, I can only hope he works on improving his writing skills.

personally, I think people didn't like Smith because he was loud and black and white people have a hard time handling that. Personally, I think he was a fine journalist and I loved his interviews. The show should have been shorter though. Then again, I dont expect your casual sports fan to understand talent and seemingly neither does Shanoff. Big Surprise!

personally, I think people didn't like Smith because he was loud and black and white people have a hard time handling that.

Bullshit, people didn't like how he turned everything into a race issue. And if a black athelete did something wrong, he would blame whitey for it. Its a shame this racist POS stayed on ESPN for as long as he did. He is no worse than Rush Limbaugh. Fuck him, and good riddance.

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DanShanoff.com is a sports-blog spin-off of my long-time ESPN.com column, "The Daily Quickie." Anchored by an early-morning post of must-know topics, the blog is updated frequently throughout the day with new posts and user comments.